Which movies won Maggie Smith her Oscars?
Dame Maggie Smith was such a revered actor of the British stage and screen that it can be easy to forget that Hollywood claimed her as well. In her nearly seven decades on the silver screen, Smith was nominated for six Academy Awards – four of which were for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ and two of which were for ‘Best Lead Actress’. The nominations were spread across four decades, from the mid-1960s, when she was not widely known outside the UK, to the early 2000s, when she had already become a household name thanks to her role in the Harry Potter franchise.
Smith’s first nomination came in 1966 for Stuart Burge’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello. Lauren Olivier also received a nomination for playing the titular tragic general, but his performance is seriously marred by his decision to wear blackface. As his wife, Desdemona, Smith is much more sympathetic, and her performance ages significantly better. The film also had the distinction of featuring the film debuts of Derek Jacobi and future Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon.
Four years later, Smith’s name was thrown into the hat again for her role as a free-spirited, idealistic young teacher in Ronald Neame’s drama The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The film won rave reviews across the board, but Smith’s performance was so commanding that it earned most of the attention.
Her next nomination came in 1973 for the film Travels with My Aunt. Directed by the great George Cukor and based on a novel by famed author Graham Greene, it stars Smith as the titular Aunt Augusta Bertram, a hedonistic individualist who enlists her straight-laced nephew to help her smuggle a small fortune out of England under the pretext of rescuing a long-lost lover.
Six years later, the actor was nominated again for the anthology film California Suite, in which she played one of several guests at an upscale hotel. Written by legendary comedic scribe Neil Simon and directed by veteran comedy director Herbert Ross, it’s a broad comedy that capitalised on Smith’s flair for British acidity.
In 1987, she was nominated for her role in the classic Merchant Ivory production of A Room with a View, which received eight nominations and won three awards. Smith played the chaperone of Helena Bonham Carter’s character, harkening back to the schoolmistress she played in Miss Jean Brodie and would later play in the Harry Potter series.
Last but not least was her nomination for the 2001 film Gosford Park. Directed by the great Robert Altman, the period mystery features a stacked cast, including Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry, Clive Owen, and Richard E Grant. It was also Smith’s first collaboration with screenwriter Julian Fellows, who would go on to compose one of her most memorable roles, the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey.
So, which movies did Maggie Smith win Oscars for?
It is rarely the case that one Oscar nominee stands head and shoulders above the rest. The person who wins is usually either the person who did the most campaigning or had a particularly aggressive marketing team at their back. Sometimes, it comes down to legacy, with the Academy seeking to right its previous missteps by handing the statuette to the person who lost out in previous years.
Smith was a notoriously private person who avoided interviews and public appearances, meaning that she never played the Oscar campaign game. And while she could have won the award for any of her nominated performances, in the end, it came down to two.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Ronald Neame, 1969)
The actor’s first Oscar was for her electrifying performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Set in the 1930s, the movie centres on a woman whose refusal to conform to convention threatens her career. She has affairs with two of her colleagues and teaches her students about love and politics, and while this makes her a magnetic figure and role model to some, it also makes her an easy target. It’s a clear-eyed counterpoint to Mary Poppins and a film that has aged surprisingly well.
Despite it being her first nomination, Smith wasn’t present at the Oscars to accept her award. True to her reputation for being a relentlessly hard worker who shied away from pomp and circumstance, she was busy doing a play in London and didn’t want to take the night off.
California Suite (Herbert Ross, 1978)
Smith’s performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a stunning demonstration of theatrical skill, but her nomination for California Suite is arguably more impressive. In a cast dominated by Hollywood luminaries, she was the lone actor to receive an Oscar nomination for the film. Jane Fonda, Michael Caine, Alan Alda, and Walter Matthau turned in their customary scene-stealing performances, but it was Dame Maggie who single-handedly kept the film from sinking into pastiche.
Ironically, Smith’s character in the film is a British actor who is nominated for an Academy Award. She knows she has no chance of winning and spends her time fretting about her career, slumping into despair, and grasping at denial. Some of her lines could have come from Smith herself. “You’ve got to have a sentimental reason for them to vote for you,” she tells her husband (Caine) at one point. “Any decent actress can give a good performance.”
The Academy either decided that Smith did have a sentimental reason to win a second Oscar or was just too good to pass over. In winning the award, she beat Meryl Streep who was nominated for The Deer Hunter, a performance that remains a highlight of her extraordinary career.
